Blog

Music is a beautiful element of life. In November we became the first London coffee shop to release music on Vinyl and streaming services. The record is 6 tracks of smooth, ambient sounds. Perfect to chill out and drink a coffee to!

We released our first EP on Quaker Street Records, and its available for download via all major music platforms!

A charitable exhibition surpassing art, filmmaker and visual artist Matthew Shapira brings his work from LA to Quaker Street with the ultimate goal of raising funds and awareness for Elephant sanctuaries around the globe.

Shapira’s proceeds support a number of Elephant charities, and you can too by visiting his online shop. We also used limited edition coffee cups to spread the message!

Canadian contemporary artist DD Regalo displayed his emotionally charged “Lost and found” collection last September, accompanied by live music from Frederico Marton. Regalo’s style is eclectic and consistently inconsistent. View his full portfolio on his website.

Political provocateur Julien Surdeau, AKA @ThrstyBstrd, creates art with the purpose of evoking conversation and opinion about our consumerist culture. His show Juicy! was displayed at Quaker Street in August and was a private viewing event.

Creative director and artist Steve Kalinda exhibits “Be Bold” at Quaker Street Cafe. Originally from Rwanda, Kalinda’s work is a colourful mixture of graphics, photography and film. You can view his instagram here, and watch a short interview about the exhibition via this link.

Phil Dean goes by the pseudonym shoreditch sketcher on instagram. His work is a wealth of intricately composed sketches and live drawings of cities he’s visited around the world, and he exhibited them at Quaker Street Cafe in June. Phil also does sketching workshops around London, and you can find more information on his website.

A poignant figure in London’s street art scene, artist Nick Brown showcased a collection of spray painted portraits at the Cafe in March. Brown is a graphic designer, muralist and illustrator, and you can find a portfolio of his work over at https://www.nickbrownartwork.com.

Whilst everybody at Quaker Street is waiting patiently for our co-working space plans to finalise before January, we’ve been thinking of ways to utilise the large area right next to the cafe. It’s available to hire out privately until then, and what could be better suited to the month of October more than a VR take on a classic haunted house..

In collaboration with Realities Centre and Japan Nakama, a potentially terrifying, fun, bizarre and exciting alternate world exists behind the doors of the happy place we know as Quaker Street. You can choose from four different realms, each of them equally as fascinating. If you’ve ever fancied a high adrenaline zombie killing spree with 3 of your best mates, look no further – we’ve got just the trick. If you beat the high score of the day you get 15% off either a Hyper Reality T shirt or Hyper `reality experiences.

Our VR haunted house is running until November 30th, from 1pm until 11pm with different sessions taking place throughout the day. You can find out more information via the Hyper Reality website here.

One of our very first creatives to be exhibited in Quaker Street was graffiti artist and muralist Mr Cenz. An active member of the street art community since 1988, Mr Cenz has an enormous portfolio of work spanning major cities around the world, with the bulk of his work existing in his hometown of London.

His murals are bursting with colour and movement with many being absolutely enormous installations on buildings and walls – he has even worked on some out of use trains in Germany! His first ever commissioned piece of work was completed at just eleven years old, and after a few run ins with authorities he made an effort to do what he loved legally.

The line between street art and vandalism is difficult to distinguish for many, and the rights artist have over their work aren’t always protected. Recently, retail giant H&M tried and failed to steal work by graffiti artist Revok. Their argument was that since Revok’s work was illegal, he had no legal claim to it himself and they should be free to use it. This ignited a powerful movement within the street art community, and H&M backed down. Thankfully this hasn’t deterred artists from adding colour and life to our streets – creatives like Mr Cenz are as active as ever.